Paul McDowell, managing director of Ganly Walters auctioneers, invites us to browse and decide which ones we'd like to hang on our walls. We are being offered a sneak preview of the items that will be put under the hammer at Sothebys in London at its Irish-art sale later this year. So everyone here in the Ganly Walters Dublin offices is a millionaire, right? "Oh, absolutely," says a cheeky Robert Ganly, one of the directors of the long-established family business. His wife Sandra Ganly is upstairs checking out the works by the likes of Roderic O'Connor, Sir William Orpen and Jack B. Yeats.
Princess Francis Colonna di Stigliano and her two daughters Donna Vittoria (18) and Donna Lucrezia (15) arrive just in time to view the paintings and meet their friends.
James Deeny, from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and his wife Ruth Deeny are here also. Dr Knut Moe from Trondheim in Norway and his wife Helen Moe are at the bash.
Peter Wilson, director of Dublin Zoo, and cousin of Robert Ganly, is here with his wife, Jane Wilson. Other guests who have come along to view the work which has just been on tour in America include Antoinette Staunton and her friend Mary Lloyd. And next week, the collection goes to Grey Abbey in Co Down, according to Sotheby's Amanda Blackmore. All the gathered connoisseurs of art are delighted to hear also that Lucienne Purcell and her husband Greg Wheeler have just launched a new Irish schnapps, called Or. But it seems, as they explain, that the drink is only available in "very trendy places" at the moment.